Douglas County School District will go remote after Thanksgiving due to COVID-19 surge

Students in the Douglas County School District will finish the fall semester remotely, the district announced Thursday.

The district will move all students to virtual learning on Nov. 30, following Thanksgiving break. The move was anticipated, as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to surge across Colorado.

Earlier this week, interim Superintendent Corey Wise proposed the transition to remote learning, telling the board of education that case management, contact tracing efforts and widespread quarantines were crippling schools’ operations.

“DCSD currently has nearly 5,000 students and staff members in quarantine and 13 schools in remote learning status, and it appears those numbers will continue to rise in the coming days,” Wise said in an announcement.

Both figures are up from Tuesday, when he told the Board of Education nine schools were already closed and utilizing online education.

Douglas County joins a growing roster of Denver-area school districts to opt for virtual learning in light of COVID-19 trends. Westminster Public Schools is an outlier, as it prepares to welcome students back to in-person learning on Monday following a two-week, districtwide shutdown.